Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wolfgang's 36er: first look

No time to write up a long-winded explanation of everything here, but this has been another complicated one.

Highlights:-Internal cable routing. I dislike this in general, because I don't like drilling holes in tubes just to make things pretty, but Wolfgang *really* wanted it, so I used some super-beefy straightgauge and brazed in some brass tubing. -Cut/weld bends in the seat tube and seatstays. This was pretty much mandatory to keep the tire clearance acceptable as well as providing some room for the knees when pedaling. Labor intensive but hopefully worth it. -83mm BB shell for tire clearance reasons. This is something I am making mandatory on any future 36ers (hear that, Brad?) because a 73mm shell simply doesn't allow the combination of short (500mm!) stays and decent tire clearance that I like to have. With an 83mm shell, I can use stock (Nova Mad Max) chainstays and dropouts, rather than having to resort to making them from straightgauge (hard to do, mediocre end result). Interestingly enough, I'll be brazing on some rings on the BB to allow it to be chamfered for a Schlumpf drive system. -The extra head tube extending below the downtube will be cut down - my fixture does not allow me to set the head tube height high enough for most 36ers, so I leave the head tube extra long to make up the extra distance, then cut it down and face it at the end of the process.

..and if your in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the custom frame builder wherever you are ,just walk in say "Builder, I want a 36er.". And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both idiots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in askin' for a 36er and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in wantin' to ride 36ers and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

I feel bad, but we were only there for about 36 hours and it was all wedding, all the time (when I wasn't shitfaced, that is). We will hopefully be down there for a longer period of time this fall/winter to hang out and we will, um, get shitfaced! Or, have a beer or two and be civilized. Your call.